2015 Free NCAA Tournament Picks – NC State vs Villanova Odds & Predictions for Saturday 3/21

2015 Free NCAA Tournament Picks – #8 NC State vs #1 Villanova Odds & Predictions for Saturday 3/21: The early betting odds for Saturday’s 2015 NCAA Tournament 3rd round East Region matchup between #8 seeded NC State and #1 seeded Villanova have been released by top-rated MyBookie.ag Sportsbook and the Villanova Wildcats have been installed as a -9.5 point favorite with the game total listed at over/under 139 points. The game is scheduled to tip off from the Consol Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 7:10 PM EST.

The 2015 Villanova Wildcats are clearly head coach Jay Wright’s most talented team since he began coaching at Villanova in 2001. The Wildcats enter Saturday’s matchup with the Wolfpack at 33-2 overall out of the Big East Conference and made it to Saturday’s 2015 NCAA Tournament 3rd round matchup by easily handling #16 seed Lafayette 93-52 on Thursday. The Wildcats played just one ACC Conference foe this season and they defeated old Big East Conference rival Syracuse up at the Carrier Dome 82-77 on December 20th.

Villanova, in our opinion, has been the nation’s 2nd best overall team all year behind only Kentucky and have gone overlooked and, frankly, been disrespected by much of the national media. The ridiculously biased analysts at ESPN and CBS network’s Doug Gottlieb have been the most embarrassing with Gottlieb even questioning if Villanova was deserving of a #1 seed in the 2015 NCAA Tournament Bracket.

NC State head coach Mark Gottfried leads his Wolfack into this matchup Saturday after coming back and winning late on last second layup to beat #9 seed LSU 66-65 Thursday night. The Wolfpack come into this 3rd round matchup with an overall record of 21-13 out of the ACC Conference. NC State did not play any teams from the Big East Conference this season and will be getting their first taste of the nation’s #2 rated RPI conference on Saturday against the talented Wildcats.

This matchup does not appear to be close on paper and we don’t expect it to be close on the court either. Villanova comes in averaging 76.7 points per game offensively and allowing 60.6 defensively, while NC State comes in averaging 70.3 points per game offensively as a team and 65.4 points per game defensively. The Wildcats shoot 47.5 percent from the floor as a team, 72.6% from the free throw line and knock down 9.1 three pointers per game. NC State shoots the ball at a 43.7 percent clip from the floor, 68.4% from the charity stripe and knock down 6.6 threes per contest.

We look for Villanova to absolutely take control of this game early and basically dominate from start to finish playing in their backyard in Pennsylvania. The Wildcats played in a tougher overall conference than NC State in our opinion and also handled every big time non-conference team they faced on their schedule. Saturday against an inferior NC State team that is lucky to even be playing in this game will be no different. Villanova should win this game by 15 plus points going away.

Free 2015 NCAA Tournament Picks: Take Villanova -9.5 over NC State.